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Dils Center under new ownership

Kunze, Harris want to make positive impact

Marietta resident Vinny Kunze and his fiancee, Angela Harris, pose for a photo in front of the Dils Center in downtown Parkersburg. Kunze and Harris are purchasing the historic building on a land contract and plan to continue using it as a venue for musical performances and event center, as well as leasing office space, offering climate-controlled storage and opening a restaurant. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — The new owners of the Dils Center hope to make the iconic downtown Parkersburg fixture a positive gathering place in the area.

“Everybody wants to focus on the negative,” said Marietta resident Vinny Kunze, referring to the drug problem and related crimes. “I want to bring back the positive.”

Kunze and his fiancee, Angela Harris, entered a land contract in July with Morgan Stubbe to purchase the former department store and longtime event center and office building in the 500 block of Market Street. Stubbe decided to sell the facility earlier this year following the unexpected death of her husband, Todd, in July 2018.

Under Todd Stubbe, the Dils Center came back into the local spotlight and played host to weddings, private parties, musical performances and more.

Kunze, a former emergency medical technician and firefighter and longtime area musician, said he wants the center to continue in that vein, noting they carried on events scheduled before the ownership change and are booking new ones now — from Christmas parties and wedding receptions to “birthdays, Laser Tag, proms, dances.”

Dils Center co-owner Vinny Kunze, left, laughs as he and Nathan Hess set up for a concert in a ballroom at the historic downtown Parkersburg facility. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

“I wanted to do an event center that would appease all, accommodate the whole community,” he said. While he hadn’t performed there before, “I’ve heard how amazing it is and know a lot of people want to see it resurrected.”

In addition, there is office space available, with four businesses and one residential tenant staying on after the ownership change.

Kunze also has experience in the restaurant business. Harris spent 14 years as a decorator for Fenton Art Glass.

They are offering climate-controlled storage in the basement of the building. They also plan to open a restaurant in the near future providing casual American and Italian food. Eventually, that restaurant will be able to cater events at the center as well, under the leadership of executive chef Stephanie Gandee.

Giving back to the community is important, Kunze said, adding he’d like to hold events that are fundraisers to help people in the community. The only events he said he isn’t interested in playing host to are those that are “anti-God” or attack any race, religion or creed.

Marietta resident Vinny Kunze and his fiancee, Angela Harris, pose for a photo in front of the Dils Center in downtown Parkersburg. Kunze and Harris are purchasing the historic building on a land contract and plan to continue using it as a venue for musical performances and event center, as well as leasing office space, offering climate-controlled storage and opening a restaurant. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

“We want something that’s positive and productive here,” he said.

He said the organizers of the OUTlandish Bingo events that raise money for Parkersburg Pride are “just as welcome here as a Metallica cover band.”

Kunze said he wants to emphasize music but isn’t limiting it to a particular genre, “whether you’re rap, hip-hop, country, gospel or folk.”

On Saturday, they held their first concert, a birthday celebration for Kunze’s Forced to Engage bandmate, guitarist Russ Farney.

Kunze and Harris acknowledge there are challenges ahead. They said they spent much of their time since taking over the building getting everything up to code and trying to deal with leaks in the roof. The air-conditioning also went down, and a lot of time and money went into repairing it. Kunze credited the work Todd Stubbe did with getting them started on the right path to addressing those issues.

In some ways, it feels like they’ve had the facility longer than two-and-a-half months, Harris said, but she’s optimistic about the future.

“I love this building,” she said.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.

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